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With Clonakilty Waterfront Marathon on the horizon, and many more runs taking place throughout the winter, preparation is vital for your wellbeing and safety.
Please see the attached for useful tips on your preparation … http://www.iscp.ie/component/docman/doc_download/168-iscp-marathon-preparation-information-leaflet.html

Sports Injuries

In West Cork sport is an integral part of everyday life.

At West Cork Chartered Physiotherapy Clinics we will ensure you will get the most from your treatment by creating a SPORTS SPECIFIC treatment plan to get you back to your sport, or the activity you love, quickly and safely, be it a casual week-end activity or an elite sports fixture.

West Cork Chartered Physiotherapy can help you if you participate in any of the following:

Blame this kind of joint pain on cartilage or a lack thereof. As the connected tissue wears away the subsequent bone-on-bone contact can trigger pain ranging from mild to severe. It is more common among obese people (as excess weight increases pressure on joints) and the elderly (because cartilage deteriorates with age), but it can also develop from an injury like a torn Meniscus or Anterior Cruciate Ligament. Cortisone injections are one option but overdoing the shots may worsen joint damage which is why many GPs limit the number rendered.

An alternative treatment is Acupuncture. This needling technique has been used to treat pain for centuries and evidence suggests it can be particularly effective in treating knee osteoarthritis. Research believes the needles may trigger nerves to signal the brain to release endorphins, a naturally occurring phenonomen that dulls pain.

The most common cause of general Musculoskeletal pain in women aged 20 – 55 is also the hardest to treat. Unlike other common types of pain, Fibromyalgia has no known cause and is characterised by fatigue and widespread aches that can leave the whole body feeling tender.

The problem likely lies with the bodies central nervous system. In most cases, when the brain processes pain it sends the signal back to the site of the problem (bang you knee, and you feel a sharp sting on the spot), but with Fibromyalgia, the signal is amplified, affecting the body at many different points. While there is no cure for Fibromyalgia, reducing stress, getting enough sleep, and exercising regularly, can help manage the symptoms.

Physiotherapy and medication have also been effective in keeping pain under control.

More and more people are drawn to acupuncture as an lternative treatment for pain yet many find it difficult to understand how it works.

A London-based GP, Dr Richard Halvorsen offers explanations for the use of acupuncture in the western and eastern medical traditions in his new book, Managing Pain and Other Medically Proven Uses of Acupuncture (Gibson Square, London).
He also rates the value of acupuncture across a range of medical conditions based on research studies.

Let’s start with the explanations. Many people have a vague idea that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is based on a completely different understanding of the body than western medicine. For instance, in western medicine, the kidneys are organs that preserve the chemical balance of blood by filtering it and producing urine. In TCM, however, the kidneys store the body’s “essence” and produce marrow and manufacture blood.

Halvorsen admits that when he first studied TCM at the former British College of Acupuncture, he was completely confused by these contradictory explanations.

Then, he writes: “I realised that they were completely different concepts, similar only in that they share a common name. I no longer believed literally what I was being taught but saw this way of explaining the body as a template on which to devise a traditional Chinese treatment.”

Academic discipline

One way of viewing acupuncture through the lenses of western medicine’s teachings on anatomy and physiology is that acupuncture works by stimulating the nervous system which in turn stimulates the body’s organs to release hormones. So-called medical acupuncture has now become an academic discipline in itself.

At University College Dublin, for instance, there is a graduate diploma in healthcare acupuncture with credits linked to the British Medical Acupuncture Society Diploma of Medical Acupuncture. The two-year part-time course is open to doctors, nurses and physiotherapists.

In the 30 years since his initial training in acupuncture, Halvorsen says that its use has moved from being viewed “at best with baffled amusement and at worst with strong condemnation, to many western medical doctors using it in their daily practice”.

Here, outside the traditional Chinese medicine training, it is mainly GPs and physiotherapists who use acupuncture as an add-on treatment for some conditions. Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners – who are taught acupuncture within the wider teachings and traditions of TCM – aren’t always happy to see acupuncture used in this way.

Add-on treatment

“The concern with acupuncture being used as an add-on treatment by healthcare professionals is that it is being applied out of context and without the depth of knowledge and training of TCM practitioners,” says Deirdre Murphy, chairwoman of the Acupuncture Foundation Professional Association.

“They are therefore treating symptoms as opposed to traditional acupuncture, which treats the root cause of the condition, tailored diagnostically to the individual’s needs.”

“The limited use of acupuncture in this way influences public experience and perception and many people are not aware that this treatment can be used to treat so many other conditions within the broader scope and potential of Chinese medicine,” Murphy adds.

On the issue of safety, Halvorsen is adamant that acupuncture is a good deal safer than many drugs used to treat similar conditions.

“There are very few people who can’t have acupuncture but clearly great care needs to be taken when putting needles into anyone on anticoagulation [blood-thinning] medication,” he says.

Needles should always be sterile single- use disposables and they should never be inserted into damaged or infected skin. Electro-acupuncture (a form of acupuncture using electrical pulses) should not be used for anyone with a heart pacemaker.

Professional organisation

When seeking an acupuncturist, advises Halversen, check whether the acupuncturist is a member of a professional acupuncture organisation and has professional liability insurance.

In Ireland, the three main registers to which acupuncturists trained in TCM belong are the Acupuncture Foundation Professional Association, the Acupuncture Council of Ireland and the Professional Register of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

GPs and physiotherapists here who use acupuncture will be members of the British Medical Acupuncture Society.

I am pleased to announce that we have extended our physiotherapy practice in addition to Bandon at Clonakilty GAA Grounds, Ahamilla. I have been in practice in West Cork for 21 years and over that time period in addition to working out of Bandon I have had the pleasure for working for 12 years in Skibbereen in a private capacity, and concurrently in Mount Carmel Hospital, Clonakilty as a community based physiotherapist for the HSE.

Having graduated in the US as a Physiotherapist in 1987 I worked for the following five years in a variety of teaching hospitals in Boston and Michigan and returned to practise in West Cork in 1982.

Presently, an opportunity has arisen to work at Clonakilty GAA Club which will serve both the sporting and non-sporting community of Clonakilty and its environs.

The focus of my practice is a full assessment, diagnosis and treatment of orthopaedic and sports injuries making as always, my standard of care complete and comprehensive.

These will reduce pain, rebalance your feet, legs, hip and can drastically help to improve and maintain a healthy posture. These insoles are often the key to stabilising your back problems and can reduce the number of treatments you will need to keep pain away. The high impact of Athletes necessitates the occasional need for Orthotics to restore joints to the correct position.

Remember, it is not the years in your life, it is the life in your years that is important.